The Hintons: Austin's Birth Story

We arrived at the hospital right before midnight on Monday to be induced. We filled out some paperwork and were taken to our room. It was probably close to 1 am before they finally had us all situated and the pitocin going. I was dilated to about 2 cm at this point.

We got settled in and began the waiting game. I was comfortable and ready to go. The nurse mentioned that the doctor would be in between 6-8 am to break my water. That was a little disappointing, because I remember with Blake they broke it within the first hour or two.

During the night, I started feeling some contractions, though they still weren't super painful. When the pain started getting more uncomfortable, we did some medicine through my IV.

When my doctor came to break my water around 7:30 am, I was only dilated to around 3 cm. My doctor told me if I wanted to get an epidural, that it would be a good time cause the pain was likely to start picking up. So we called the anesthesiologist in. They sat me up in the bed and I was ready. As he was inserting the needle, he kept saying, "Let me know if you have any of these symptoms: ...dizziness, ringing in the ears, etc.". At first, everything was perfect and I kept saying that I was fine. Then suddenly, every single symptom he warned me about happened. It was one of the most bizarre things I've ever had happen, especially the ringing in my ears. It was like everyone was talking to me, but I could only almost hear them, like background noise. Seriously, it was odd.

After a few minutes of adjusting, they got it figured out and I was good to go.

The next few hours passed by very uneventfully. Lance went home for a bit to check on the kids and get some food, and I pretty much just sat there. I had a book I read from here and there. I watched an episode or two on Netflix. I took a lot of short naps. Anything longer was impossible due to the blood pressure cuff constantly squeezing the guts out of my arm and nurses coming and going.

Throughout the day, I started to feel my epidural wear off my left leg. Around 1 pm (ish), my back was hurting bad enough that I asked to have the anesthesiologist come in and check it. He increased my dose a little bit and adjusted things to try to get that other side numb again.

The pain started getting better and I was relieved that it seemed to be working. But it didn't work for long. Within about an hour, my back was really starting to hurt again. The nurses checked me at this point, and hallelujah, I had progressed to 6 cm. It honestly felt like a miracle, yet still a ways to go.

The nurse wanted to try moving me onto my side with my leg propped in the air to try to get the baby to move into the right position. I was SO uncomfortable at that point. Lying in that position only increased my back pain, and I asked for the anesthesiologist to come back in again.

Almost right as he is coming into the room, I start to feel some pressure. Then we have to try to figure out what exactly we want to do. Basically, I was told he could give me another dose like before, or he could redo the entire thing. Because I was feeling some pressure, I told him to just give me a small dose and to see where we were at. If the baby was close, then there was no point in doing the epidural over.

I told the nurse I was feeling a lot of pressure and that I thought she should check me. "I can't believe it. I just can't believe this. This baby is ready!" She was so surprised that within about 10 minutes I had progressed from a 6 to a 10. It was time to go.

They called the doctor, who was luckily just in the parking lot not very far away. But it still felt like forever until he arrived. It was hard not to start pushing right away, and it was uncomfortable waiting. But within a few minutes, he was there and we started pushing. After only a few sets of contractions, Austin Rose was born and 3:15 pm. The doctor and nurses thought it was the coolest thing because she was born at 10/20/2015 at 15:15.

Lance cut the cord then put her up on my chest. I held her for a few moments before they took her to be weighed and cleaned up a bit.

She weighed 7 lbs 6 oz and was 20.5 inches long.

We stayed in that room for a about an hour before we moved to the recovery room. Lance made a ton of phone calls while I just relaxed and enjoyed our new little girl. Because we had just increased the dose on my epidural minutes before we delivered, my legs were completely numb. I couldn't even wiggle my toes at that point. I also attempted breastfeeding, and it went surprisingly well.

While they were transferring us to our recovery room, they took Austin to give her and bath and get her completely cleaned. She had to reach a certain temperature before they would give her a bath, so it took some time before they returned her to us.

Lance's parents arrived a few minutes before they brought her back. They enjoyed some time with her, then my mom showed up with Will and Blake. They were both very excited to see the new baby and couldn't wait to hold her.

The first night went fairly well. I originally sent her to the nursery, but told them to bring her back for me to feed her. Once they brought her back the first time, I just decided to keep her there the rest of the night. She was up a couple of times, and I was able to feed her and get right back to sleep. I was completely exhausted and would practically fall asleep while she was eating, but we made it through the night and I actually felt decently rested by morning.

Wednesday was mostly just hanging out in our room waiting to see when they would let us go. We knew we would have to stay until at least 4 pm since they wont discharge you before 24 hours. And Davis Hospital provides a nicer dinner for you and your spouse that we saved for Wednesday night, so we were hoping we would be able to leave after that. I wouldn't have minded spending another night in the hospital and leaving in the morning, but financially it didn't make sense.

There were a lot of different people coming in and out all day Wednesday. People from the hospital, talking about bills and insurance. Nurses constantly checking on me. Nurses constantly checking on Austin. My doctor came to examine me and talk about post-baby stuff. Our pediatrician came to do an exam on Austin. A couple of friends stopped by to visit. It really just seemed like people were constantly coming in and out. Something urgent came up at work and Lance had to run in for an hour or so. When he got back, the three of us finally had a moment of peace and quiet and we all spent part of the afternoon napping.

We had some visitors that evening, then began the process of being discharged. Austin's blood sugar had been low most of the day but we finally got in back in proper levels. She did not pass her hearing test, so we will have to go back in a week to get re-tested. They said often there is still a lot of build up in the ears so they can't get a proper reading. I'm not too worried about it though.

Around 8 pm Wednesday night, we were given the ok to leave. We packed up our new amazing bundle and headed home. The kids were bouncing off the wall excited to see their new sister again.